The High court (HC) sent on Monday a writ petition against power and gas price hike to a regular bench. The HC bench comprising Justice Miftah Uddin Chowdhury and Kazi Izarul Haq Akand passed the order. Mobasser Hossain , convener of the Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) filed the petition against Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC).on October 7, which came up for hearing before the bench on Monday.Advocate Subrato Chowdhury and Muhammad Saiful Alam conducted the hearing in favour of the writ petition. Advocate Saiful Alam told the press that the petition was sent to the regular bench. CAB advisor Prof Shamsul Alam said, BERC has increased the power and gas price violating its rules. As per rule, the BERC has to arrange public hearing within 90 days of submitting power and gas price hike proposal. But the BERC arranged the hearing after five months. Prof Alam told the Daily Observer that at first the CAB applied to the BERC not to hike prices but BERC did not respond. " So, we are compelled to go to the HC," he added. As per proposals of the companies, Rural Electrification Board wanted a 25.89 per cent hike in retail power price, PDB wanted 22 per cent hike, West-Zone Power Distribution Company wanted 21.31 per cent, Dhaka Power Distribution Company wanted 17.85 per cent and Dhaka Electric Supply Company wanted 17.45 per cent hike.BERC hiked power price at 2.93 and gas price 26.29 per cent on August 27.